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August 1, Indianapolis, IN--- Dave Blaney piloted the No. 36 Big Red Chevrolet from the 33^rd starting spot this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He battled a lap 27 flat tire, and the Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) team worked to fix the damage and finish 31^st in the Brickyard 400. The team held onto the 32^nd position in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Owner Points.
 
The Big Red team worked on the No. 36 Big Red Chevrolet right off the truck. Blaney posted the 41^st-fastest time in first practice and the 46^th-quickest time in the second and third practice sessions. Blaney picked up over a second in his qualifying run and posted the 33^rd-fastest time of 50.021 seconds.
 
Blaney took the green flag of the Brickyard 400 presented by Golden Corral on ESPN from the 33^rd position. He worked up to 31^st before radioing on lap 11 that the Big Red Chevrolet was tightening up. He continued that the car was really good at the beginning but quickly grew tighter and it hurt him in the corner.
 
Crew Chief Phillipe Lopez called for Blaney to drive down pit road for the first pit stop of the day on lap 27. As he came in for the green-flag stop, the front right tire blew. Blaney nursed the Chevrolet to the pit stall, and the Big Red team changed four tires, made a trackbar adjustment and put Barebond over the right-front damage. After inspecting the tires, the team found that the wear was good and there was a flat spot on the tire.
 
Blaney continued to run 32^nd until the first caution flag waved on lap 35 for debris. The team put on four scuff tires and put a rubber in the right rear of the No. 36 Big Red Chevrolet, while they worked on the damage with more Barebond. Blaney returned to pit road on the next lap to allow the Big Red team to continue to fix the damage. Once he got back out on track, the Hartford, Ohio native radioed that the car had a big shake and was concerned that the lugnuts were not all tight. Still under yellow flag conditions, the team chose to change four tires again to try to fix the problem. Lopez radioed that because of the quick turnaround that air pressure on the new set of tires was not exact.
 
Once the field restarted, Blaney worked up to 27^th before the second yellow flag flew for an incident in turn three. The Big Red team utilized this caution flag to stay out and lead a lap. After leading lap 52, Blaney drove down pit road for a four-tire pit stop. The team did not make any adjustments, as the No. 36 Big Red Chevrolet’s lap times were good. The field went back to green on lap 55 with Blaney in the 32^nd position.
 
Five laps later, Blaney radioed that the car was really good at the beginning of the run but tightened up quickly. Backup spotter and owner Tommy Baldwin and Blaney discussed that the car was handling well in turn one but had a push in turns three and four. The Big Red team utilized a green-flag, four-tire pit stop on lap 83 to make a wedge adjustment to work on the tight condition. By lap 85, Blaney radioed that if the car stayed the way it was they were going to have a good run.
 he third caution of the day flew on lap 95 for debris. Blaney pit for four tires but was penalized for speeding exiting pit road so he started on the tail end of the field. Two laps after the green flag waved, he moved from 32^nd to 30^th position. On lap 103, the Big Red driver radioed that the car initially turned well but really lost the handle. A debris caution on lap 115 allowed the team to make another four-tire pit stop.
 
Blaney returned to green flag racing on lap 118 in the 31^st position. On lap 120, Landon Cassill and David Ragan spun. While trying to avoid the incident, Blaney drove under a spinning Cassill and got a lot of grass on the front grill, which caused the No. 36 Big Red Chevrolet to start overheating. The overheating forced the team to pit for fuel, a shock adjustment and to clean the grill. Debating on whether to top-off on the one-to-go lap, the team played it safe and stayed out, opting to pit under green conditions when they knew they would be able to finish the 400-mile race.
 
Blaney restarted on lap 127 in 19^th and came back down pit road with 28 to go. The Big Red team topped off the No. 36 with fuel and cleaned off the grill. By lap 142, Blaney radioed that handling-wise the car was the best it has been all race. With five laps to go, he radioed that the car was a half-click tight in 30^th position. The No. 36 Big Red Chevrolet finished in the 31^st spot.
 
The 31^st-place finish kept the No. 36 team in the 32^nd position in NSCS Owner Points. The team is 66 points out of 31^st and 50 points ahead of 36^th. Blaney held onto the 31^st position in NSCS Driver Points. He is 69 points behind David Gilliland in 30^th and seven points ahead of Casey Mears in 32^nd.
 
“Unfortunately, we got damage early from the blown tire," explained Blaney. "We were a bit tight, but it seemed everyone was struggling with that. It seemed like we were loosing ground on the straightaway because of the damage. By the end, the car got a lot better. Sometimes you gamble and it works and sometimes it doesn’t. We decided not to gamble, and it looks like it bit us. We continue to make gains as a team. We’ll go to Pocono and see what we can do there.”
 
Blaney will return to the track next weekend for the Good Sam RV Insurance 500 and pilot the No. 36 Golden Corral Chevrolet in the second stop at Pocono Raceway this season.

Newman Fights To 12^th-Place Finish at Indianapolis
Haas Automation Driver Rallies From Tough Start To Score 12^th Top-15 of Season

July 31, Speedway, IN--- Ryan Newman overcame nearly 100-degree temperatures and tough track conditions on Sunday to score a respectable 12^th-place finish in the 18^th running of the Brickyard 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) spent much of the 160-lap race trying to find clean air so his car would handle better. His efforts in that regard were made harder as he started in the middle of the field in 23^rd.

Newman spent much of the race between the 17^th and 23^rd positions as he and crew chief Tony Gibson attempted to work on the car’s handling via track bar, wedge and tire pressure adjustments. But while the car gradually became better throughout the day, track position was still incredibly vital. And while Newman’s car was fast and handling well, he found it difficult to pass other cars as the air coming off their respective machines would make Newman’s car unstable – a trait all the drivers in Sunday’s race dealt with at one point or another.

Knowing a race victory was going to be extremely difficult to obtain as the laps wound down, Gibson and Newman decided to score the best finish they could. With 29 laps remaining, Newman headed to pit road for three seconds worth of fuel, ensuring that his Haas Automation Chevrolet could make it to the finish.

Other drivers opted to gamble on fuel, and while some ran out and others had to slow way down to conserve, Newman could operate at full strength. With 10 laps to go he cracked the top-20, and with five laps remaining Newman was up to 15^th before crossing the line in 12^th at the conclusion of the 400-mile race.

“When you get back in traffic, it’s tough,” said Newman, who scored his 12^th top-15 finish of the season. “We never could get to the front and get clean air. We rallied to finish 12^th and that will help us in the points, but I wish we could’ve had a better day with our Haas Automation Chevrolet.” 

“It’s hard to adjust on a car when you’re in the middle of traffic like that,” said Gibson. “There’s no air back there. You can over-adjust way too easy, so we just tried to tinker with it. We just knew we were sucking that air and there wasn’t much we could do. The balance was going to change. We just did damage control today. We just tried to finish the best we could without killing ourselves in the points and it worked out well. The No. 14 (Tony Stewart) finished ahead of us and everybody else that we needed to outrun, we did today. That’s what we’ve got to do right now. We’ve got that win, so now we’ve got to just manage our points.” 

Stewart, Newman’s SHR teammate and driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala, finished sixth to score his ninth top-10 finish at Indianapolis and his eighth of the season.  

Paul Menard won the 18^th annual Brickyard 400 to notch his first career Sprint Cup victory, and in doing so, became the fourth first-time winner of 2011, joining Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith and David Ragan.  

Jeff Gordon finished .725 of a second behind Menard in the runner-up spot, while Smith, Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five. Stewart, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 22 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish.

With round 20 of 36 complete, Newman leads the SHR duo in the championship point standings. He remained eighth and now has 618 points, 64 markers back of series leader Carl Edwards and 31 points ahead of 11^th-place Denny Hamlin. Stewart gained two spots to climb to ninth. He now has 609 points, which puts him 73 points behind Edwards while giving him a 22-point cushion over Hamlin.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Aug. 7 Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with its pre-race show at noon.

Stewart Snags Sixth at Indy
Mobil 1/Office Depot Driver Rallies from Deep in Field to Score Eighth Top-10 of Season

July 31, Indianapolis, IN--- In an up-and-down race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a tenacious Tony Stewart made sure he finished Sunday’s Brickyard 400 on the upswing. The driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) rallied from as low as 32^nd to finish sixth, securing his eighth top-10 finish of the season and lifting him into the top-10 of the championship point standings. 

“We just fought all day and I’m really proud of Darian Grubb (crew chief) and the guys on this Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevy,” said Stewart after notching his ninth top-10 finish at Indianapolis and his eighth of the season. “They kept fighting and I fought for everything I could get all day.” 

The day got off to an inauspicious start when after rising to 16^th after starting 24^th, Stewart was assessed a pass-through penalty for hitting the commitment cone as he entered pit road during a lap-25 pit stop, which came from Stewart avoiding a rapidly slowing Kevin Harvick. 

“Kevin lifted earlier than I did coming off of turn four and instead of running into him, I went to the outside of him, and when we got to the cone there, I was in the wrong spot,” Stewart said. “It was just one of those things. You’re trying to get everything you can get. It was either hit the cone or run over the guy in front of me, so I chose to hit the cone. We got the penalty for it. I’m proud of our guys for working from behind and getting us where we got at the end.” 

Stewart served the pass-through penalty on lap 29, which consisted of driving down the length of pit road at the mandated speed limit of 55 mph while his counterparts zoomed past on the racetrack at 200 mph. When Stewart came off pit road, he was 31^st but still on the lead lap. 

With a fast, but tight-handling racecar, Stewart began a charge to the front. The charge was stout – so much so that Indianapolis’ 2.5-mile confines couldn’t contain Stewart. He slapped the turn four wall enough to scrape his car’s paint but not enough to do significant damage. 

Stewart worked his way up to 26^th when the yellow caution flag waved on lap 49. He and Grubb took the opportunity to come to pit road for the requisite four tires and fuel, but also so crew members could look at the damage and determine for sure that nothing was awry. 

Although the encounter with the wall did nothing to hurt the Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevy, its tight-handling condition persisted, especially whenever Stewart would get back in the throttle through the track’s sweeping, flat corners. 

Grubb made a myriad of changes to the car, going so far as to raise the track bar three rounds and add a round of wedge to both rear corners during a pit stop on lap 81. 

The tight-handling condition persisted, and when the caution flag waved again on lap 95, Stewart and Grubb took advantage by making another trip to pit road. But just as Stewart was turning into his pit stall, Kyle Busch – who had taken two tires in the pit stall behind Stewart – pulled out and ran into Stewart. The result was a dinged left-front fender for Stewart and bashed right-front fender for Busch. Both drivers had to return to pit road on the next lap so their respective pit crews could fix the damage. 

“It’s a long pit road, but it’s a narrow pit road,” Stewart said. “I feel bad for Kyle and those guys because they had a good day going at that time, too. Just a rough day, but we fought for everything we could get.” 

The fight continued after that pit road miscue left Stewart deep in the field, this time in 32^nd when the race resumed on lap 118. At this point in the race, however, fuel mileage was becoming an issue, and teams like the No. 14 SHR squad could roll the dice. 

Stewart needed track position, but he also needed at least another splash of fuel to make it to the full, 160-lap distance. Grubb keenly brought Stewart to pit road during the race’s final caution on lap 122 for a fuel-only stop. The strategy kicked Stewart up to 12^th with 33 laps of green-flag racing remaining. But there was a catch – Stewart was a lap-and-a-half short on fuel under even the most optimistic scenario. 

As other drivers pitted for fuel under green, Stewart worked his way up the leaderboard. He cracked the top-10 on lap 129 and then busted into the top-five on lap 132. With 27 laps to go he was third, and on lap 134 he was second. By lap 135, Stewart was in the lead for the first time. 

The two-time Brickyard 400 winner paced the field for 10 laps and opened up a margin of nearly 14 seconds over his nearest pursuer, Brian Vickers. But even as Stewart worked to save fuel, the pace of the race and deeper calculations by Grubb hinted that Stewart was actually three laps short on fuel. 

With 31 drivers on the lead lap, the gamble to go the distance was not worth it. Grubb called Stewart into the pits on lap 145, whereupon right-side tires were changed while precious gallons of fuel were added to Stewart’s tank. 

The considerable lead Stewart had built prior to his pit stop paid off, for he returned to the track in 16^th, still ahead of some drivers who had pitted under green before him. 

Able to go all out while many ahead of him had to slow down and conserve fuel, Stewart again marched up the leaderboard. In the race’s last five laps, Stewart went from 15^th to sixth as drivers in front of him either pitted for fuel, ran out of fuel or ran a pace so slow to conserve fuel that Stewart was able to blow by them. 

“We ran those last 10 laps as hard as we could,” said Stewart, who won the Brickyard 400 in 2005 and 2007 and hails from nearby Columbus, Ind. “Come to find out we were three laps short, and there was no way we could make up three laps. A lap-and-a-half I think I could’ve done, but there was no way we could make up three. We inherited the lead anyway because we stayed out and everybody else in front of us came in, so we knew it was a borrowed lead. But it sure was nice to lead here at Indy again. We had to fight from the back a couple of different times to get up there. 

“We just had a long, long hard day. To get almost a top-five out of this thing – running sixth was a good day for us. We did the right thing when we pitted and it paid off for us. We’ll take it.” 

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for SHR and fellow Hoosier, as he grew up in South Bend, Ind., finished 12^th to score his 12^th top-15 finish of the season.  

Paul Menard won the 18^th annual Brickyard 400 to notch his first career Sprint Cup victory, and in doing so, became the fourth first-time winner of 2011, joining Trevor Bayne, Brad Keselowski and David Ragan.  

“I’m really happy for Paul Menard,” Stewart said. “Paul’s been around this place (Indianapolis) for a long time. He’s been here since he was a kid. It couldn’t have happened to a better guy. That is a pretty deserving win, right there. I’m happy for him getting his first one that way.” 

Jeff Gordon finished .725 of a second behind Menard in the runner-up spot, while Regan Smith, Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five. Stewart, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Keselowski and Busch comprised the remainder of the top-10. 

There were five caution periods for 22 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish. 

With round 20 of 36 complete, Newman leads the SHR duo in the championship point standings. He remained eighth and now has 618 points, 64 markers back of series leader Carl Edwards and 31 points ahead of 11^th-place Denny Hamlin. Stewart gained two spots to climb to ninth. He now has 609 points, which puts him 73 points behind Edwards while giving him a 22-point cushion over Hamlin.    

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Aug. 7 Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with its pre-race show at noon.

Dodge Post-Race Quotes -- Brickyard 400

July 31, Indianapolis, IN--- BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished Ninth
“It was kind of an up-and-down day for the Miller Lite Dodge. At the three-quarter part of the race I thought that we were going to win the Brickyard. It just didn’t quite work out, but we made our car faster throughout the day and I was proud of that. It’s a hot day and my team battled all day long.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE GAMBLE NOT TO PIT? “We knew that we had to do a one-stop at the end. I thought Paul (Wolfe, crew chief) made the right move. We need to gamble a bit to get that second win, but we also have to be conscious of earning points. I was really surprised that so many cars were able to stay out there as long as they did. It kind of caught me off guard and we just weren’t able to run that long and not pit. We were fast at the end and it was fun.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT A POINT’S DAY IT WAS FOR YOUR TEAM? “It was for sure. Mark (Martin) had a good day, but it looks like we beat some guys who we’ve been battling in points. This place is so tough and to come out of here with a top 10 is really cool. It’s a battle. We want wins, but we also need to get inside that top 20 to have a shot at the wild card. It was a solid day for us for sure.”

PAUL WOLFE (crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)
“It was up and down for us today. We started off the race really tight and fell back a bit. We lost our track position and we were just trying to work on our car all day. Once we got stuck in the back, we just couldn’t go anywhere. We got aggressive on the one call not to pit to get our track position. We got the track position back while working on our car and felt that our Miller Lite Dodge was going to contend for a win. Some guys in front of us just got really aggressive. We talked about coming in and topping off on the last caution; we’re going to have to gamble because we need to win another race. We got a solid point’s day out of it and we needed that after how we ran at Loudon. We’ll just keep moving forward. We’re making progress. As a team, I think we’re getting smarter each week. We just need to continue to get better.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 21st
“The car was tight most of the race; when we put on right-side tires only, that’s when our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge came to life. We lost track position when the 51 crashed and we had to go through the grass. We had to come down pit roads three times. The temp was pegged. That put us the last car on the lead lap, but it had us close to our fuel window. Hitting the grass did extensive damage underneath the car and it got tighter and tighter. We were fortunate that we had the fuel to make it to the end, but with the damage, we just couldn’t maintain track position. Our car was good in practice, we qualified well and we were making changes that helped the handling. We didn’t need to get caught up in that mishap.”

ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 43rd
“Just a bummer. The motor felt like it misfired a little bit in qualifying and it looks like we may have lost an engine early. I’m not sure what to say. I’m really bummed out. I love racing at Indy. I’m disappointed. This is really going to hurt us in the top 35 in the owner point standings.”